[82lsju]

Honestly, I'm surprised it's that low. A friend of mine used to date a former 49er, a defensive lineman. He'd been retired for a few years, so call it mid to late 30s. I couldn't understand his speech -- at all. It was completely unintelligible, I couldn't 

List of NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy - Wikipedia

Five Stanford Cardinal players are on that list:

George Buehler ('68)
Greg Clark ('00)
Jim Plunkett ('70)
John Wilbur ('65)
Stanley Wilson, Jr. ('01)

it may very well be worse, from the study

Results Among 1712 NFL players who died, 338 (19.7%) players’ brains were studied, 315 (93.2%) of whom had a diagnosis of CTE; thus, among all 1712 NFL players who died, the possible CTE prevalence at death ranged between 18.5% and 98.7%. The possible prevalence at death during 2016 to 2021, when brain donation was most frequent, ranged between 24.5% and 97.7%. Among brain donors, 104 (30.8%) had stage IV CTE, 202 (59.8%) had study clinician diagnosed dementia (dementia onset: 63.4 years, standard deviation (SD) 12.5; death: 73.1 years, SD 10.5), and 63 (18.6%) had neurodegenerative disease listed as primary cause of death. In donors, stage IV CTE was associated with study clinician diagnosed dementia (risk ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.16 to 1.78; P<0.001). Only 40.6% of donors (n=82) with study clinician diagnosed dementia had neurodegenerative disease listed as the primary or secondary cause of death.

Conclusions At minimum, nearly a quarter of all former NFL players who died during 2016-21 had CTE neuropathology at death. Among NFL player brain donors, dementia diagnosed based on records before death was common and associated with stage IV CTE.

https://www.bmj.com/content/394/bmj-2026-100418

[82lsju]

Honestly, I'm surprised it's that low. A friend of mine used to date a former 49er, a defensive lineman. He'd been retired for a few years, so call it mid to late 30s. I couldn't understand his speech -- at all. It was completely unintelligible, I couldn't 

List of NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy - Wikipedia

Five Stanford Cardinal players are on that list:

George Buehler ('68)
Greg Clark ('00)
Jim Plunkett ('70)
John Wilbur ('65)
Stanley Wilson, Jr. ('01)

it may very well be worse, from the study

Results Among 1712 NFL players who died, 338 (19.7%) players’ brains were studied, 315 (93.2%) of whom had a diagnosis of CTE; thus, among all 1712 NFL players who died, the possible CTE prevalence at death ranged between 18.5% and 98.7%. The possible prevalence at death during 2016 to 2021, when brain donation was most frequent, ranged between 24.5% and 97.7%. Among brain donors, 104 (30.8%) had stage IV CTE, 202 (59.8%) had study clinician diagnosed dementia (dementia onset: 63.4 years, standard deviation (SD) 12.5; death: 73.1 years, SD 10.5), and 63 (18.6%) had neurodegenerative disease listed as primary cause of death. In donors, stage IV CTE was associated with study clinician diagnosed dementia (risk ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.16 to 1.78; P<0.001). Only 40.6% of donors (n=82) with study clinician diagnosed dementia had neurodegenerative disease listed as the primary or secondary cause of death.

Conclusions At minimum, nearly a quarter of all former NFL players who died during 2016-21 had CTE neuropathology at death. Among NFL player brain donors, dementia diagnosed based on records before death was common and associated with stage IV CTE.

https://www.bmj.com/content/394/bmj-2026-100418